Hello forum friends. Awful fortnight for El and I with mountains of emotions and a river of tears :-((
We had our second opinion on Friday with a Professor of Medicinal Oncology. We instantly warmed to him and he had thoroughly gone through my medical history before the appointment even so far as my pituitary , thyroid , bipolar complications. Luckily he is taking us under his wings as my regular Onco is moving to Leicester. We feel if anyone is ever going to cure this damn disease then he will be in on it .
His feelings , given my history and stats , are that whilst technically my only last chance of cure is RT , that it is extremely unlikely to provide that cure. Given my mental health , my fear of undertaking it , and the real concerns of bladder , bowel , ED and lymphedema , whether transient or permanent , we have decided between us to not have it. Also in consideration is that no-one would have a clue anything at all was wrong with me. I am basically fully recovered from the operation physically including sexual function , and was recovered mentally mostly until this all started up again.
So I am left with what he calls a palliative path only , but I have everything in the bag including RT if I need it. More pleasing to us was that for the time being he is happy to do nothing !! He stated he wouldn't just treat a moving PSA when the best scan available in the UK , my PSMA-PET scan , showed no cancer anywhere not even the margins.
The way forward is very regular PSA tests and when he feels comfortable another full suite of scans. He anticipated I might have one to two years of freedom which we will both enjoy to the limit ( planning two holidays already ) , followed by maybe all the tools in the bag which I will just have to face when I get there.
When asked if I would see my 60th birthday it was statistically quite unlikely, which is obviously very sad for all of us , especially having a young child.
On June 7th I will be 50 years old and on June 15th I will be exactly 2 years post op and 2 1/2 years into my journey.
Its all been very unpleasant for all of us , but by god some fun ahead I hope.
Stay safe all xx
Chris J